Most people understand that public servants, especially politicians, serve the people and part of their service includes following the law according to their oath of office, but Republicans reject the law when it contradicts ultra-conservative think tanks funded by wealthy industrialists Charles and David Koch. The Constitution is clear on how legislation becomes the law of the land, and one expects elected officials to reject special interest groups demands when they oppose established law, but over the past four years Republicans have demonstrated their disdain for the Constitution when neo-conservative think tanks have a different agenda.

The Affordable Care Act was hotly contested after it passed both houses of Congress and President Obama’s signature making it a legitimate law, and after it was upheld in the Supreme Court, one thought Republicans would finally accept that it cleared every legal challenge and begin implementing provisions at the state level to help 20-30 million Americans get access to affordable health care. One of the mainstays of Willard Romney’s campaign was his promise to repeal the ACA on his first day in office that not only displayed his ignorance of the repeal process, but also his lack of concern that millions of Americans would once again be at the mercy of the predatory health insurance industry and suffer from lack of healthcare. However, Romney’s defeat was not the end of the battle over the ACA and, as expected, Republican governors are doing the bidding of the Koch Brothers to frustrate the health law’s implementation.

The Koch Brothers think-tank, Americans for Prosperity, handed down a warning to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for not rejecting provisions in the ACA to submit health insurance exchange plans ahead of the health law’s full implementation. Republicans were already furious with Christie for praising President Obama’s rapid response to the super-storm Sandy that ravaged parts of the East Coast last week, and now the Koch Brothers are pressuring him to reject a New Jersey exchange bill to rebuff the ACA’s requirement before a November 16 cutoff date for states to set up health insurance exchanges. If states fail to set up the exchanges, the federal government does it for them and the provision gave individual states leeway to set up a healthcare marketplace according to their resident’s needs.